[OPE-L:1944] Re: Transforming the Transformation

Paul Cockshott (wpc@clyder.gn.apc.org)
Thu, 25 Apr 1996 00:21:18 -0700

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John writes
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I am starting with prices of production. How did I get there?
Start with the concrete and abstract from all else till you get
there. Now what do we have? Workers laboring for various
capitals of differing compositions each of which is earning the
same rate of profit is the object before us. Based on the
price of the net product of the total labor, we can say what
amount of "value" is created in the given period of production.
For that period, we could then say that the "value" added

Paul c
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I beg to differ John, you are not starting from the concrete
at all, but from an extreemly abstract system indeed - that
of prices of production. This is by no means what one
encounters concretely in the real world, it is a theoretical
model constructed by Marx in Vol 3. In the real world we
do not see that capitals of different compostions earn the
same rate of profit, we see a wide dispersion of
profit rates, and in fact those of high organic composition
tend to earn a lower rate of profit.